Figure 1.--Many Australian privatate schools have traditional school uniforms. This boy was one of the main characters in "Walk About". The boy's school cap seems to have alarge bill or peak. |
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You can also slect the movies available on HBC by using this alphabetical movie listing. At this time only a few movies have been analized by HBC for clothing information, but more pages are being added all the time.
A high school football coach becomes a house husband for the summer while his wife takes a job. The couple has three kids (two boys and a girl). The boys wear short shorts. The youngest was one of the boys on the Neil Carter TV show.
Walk About deals with a school boy in a traditional uniform and his sister who are left alone in the outback after their father comits suiside. They are rescued by a aborigine boy who falls in love with her. Very good movie. The Outback itself dominated the film which is why Walk About often appears on a list of important Australian films. The folm show cases the separation of modern urban society and rural aborigine spciety better than any other Australian film I have seen. Rather sad ending highlighting the racial divisions that separate Australian and mny other socities.
A cab driver takes on a key role in a woman's planned act of vengeance against the man who killed her husband and son.
A harsh, but sensitive recreation of the 1976 uprising of destitute, mistreated children in Ankara's Central Prison. Turkish subtitles with English dialogue.
A Wattz through the Hills is a lovely Australian film from 1995. It was a Barron Films production based on G.M. Glaskin's book. The film is set circa 1954 in a small country Western Australian town called Wyanilling--smack dab in the middle of Australia. Much of the action takes place around the local pub. Andrew Dean (Andre Jansen) plays an orphaned English scoolboy. There parents were English, but they were living in Australia. Andrew's dad is killed in a car accident and his mum dies in hospital. He and his sister Sammy are left orphans and live with the Thompsons in the local pub. Mr Thompson is annoyingly stubborn. They both run away after young Andy overhears Mr Thompson say that he does not want the children and will not adopt them. They both decide to walk to Perth which is a seaport where they hope to catch a boat bound for beautiful old England where their grandparents live. Andy wears a Catholic schoolboy "clobber" light blue long sleeve cotton open neck shirt, grey short trousers, beltloops, and belt plus deep pockets and grey kneesocks.
A sculptor in Italy gets involved in kidnapping of a little boy after a failed love affair in France. Rather poor movie. The boy is darling, although quite young. The Italian dialogue is dubbed, but there is an American actor. The boy wears long pants, but appears for a bit in his underwear. Then he prances around with a long sweater on, making it look like he is wearing shorts. At the end he goes home in a blazer and ghastly bell-bottomed trousers.
An emotionally crippled Vietnam vet tries to pull himself and family together. Set in the 1970s, it's about a brother and sister who go to "war" to save their tree house from some local kids. A conflict between his kids and a poor neighborhood family become a metaphor for the Vietnam conflict. His son is nicely played by Elijah Wood who appears in cutoff shorts and no socks.
A boy is forced into a trash can by other boys and they play tic tac toe (naughts and crosses) on his bottom. In another scene one group throws something (rotten eggs) at skinny dipping boys. They steal their clothes and the boys have to get back home without any clothes on. Several cute scenes of them sneaking home. In one, a boy steals a store awning, but the owner tears it away from him outside as the customers look on.
Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer
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We know very little about this fim. Kevin Costner is a Vietnam vet suffering from post distress syndrome. Lucas is the member of a neighboring very dysfunctional family.
In Yugoslavia, a sensitive 12-year old boy must grow up fast when the war reaches his hometown. Some nudity. Kenneth Welsh and Jason Hopley.
A computer Whiz-kid about 14 almost starts World War III.
A knight holds a viking prince captive. The boy wears trousers. He looks a lot like Ricky Schroder with his blond bangs.
A famous book also made into a movie is Louis Pergaud's (The War of Buttons). For details see La guerre des boutons. Lovely little movie about boys from two nearby villages. Traditional rivals, the boys have begun a modified war over some insult long forgotten. Buttons are the spoils that go to the victors and each captive is stripped of his clothing. One side launches an ingenious attack in which they wear no clothing at all resulting in a crushing defeat of the opposition. Finally the parents put an end to the feud. The film is based on a previous film, "Generals Without Buttons". The British in 1996 tried another production and got into all sorts of trouble with the censors. A spokesman for Warner Brothers described the controversial scene as a "quick flash across the scene" adding that the film was suitable for children.
The preview of David Putnam's remake of the 1962 french film was blocked by a court injunction after an Irish court complained that her son appeared naked in the production. The £5.5 million production was filmed mostly in Skibbereen, on the western coast of Ireland where the producer has a home. The mother of one of the 18 local boys given central roles in the production complained when she learned the boys appeared without their clothes. The scene at the center of the controversy involves a group of boys running down a mountainside naked to battle a group of boys from the neighboring village. As they were not wearing clothes, the rival gang could not rip off their buttons. The teenage actors, paid about £25 a day, were originally given women's tights with the legs cut off to wear. The film company, however, concluded that the tights were to obvious and told the boys that they had to reshoot the film without them. On the second day of the shooting they wore "modesty pouches." The counsel for the boy's mother described him as a "sturdy young lad from an agricultural family," He said the boy's parents withdrew him from the production after noticing that he was a "bit down" after shooting the scene--which took 12 takes. I'm not sure about the costuming. You would think the boys might wear smocks or shorts as it is set in France, but if it is updated it will of course be all longs.
Watch on the Rhine" (1943), is an an important film based on Lillian Hellman's famous play of the same name. It is one of a series of films made before and during World War II. It painted an evil picture of the NAZIs, but Americans viewing the film had no idea how understated was the evil of the NAZIs. The film was was based upon Lillian Hellman's 1941 play concerning American complacency about what was happening in NAZI Germany in the yers before Pearl Harbor and the American entrance into World War II had fully awakened America to the grim realities of European politics. The film was directed by Herman Shumlin and starred Paul Lukas (who won an Academy Award for his performance) and Bette Davis. Lucile Watson plays a wealthy, acid-tongued matriarch of the internationally oriented upper-class society of Washington, D.C. in 1940.
Tom, a 12-year old chimney sweep wrongly accused of stealing from a country estate, dives into a pool to escape, and encounters animated human type creatures of the deep. Billie Whitelaw.
Timothy (Bobby Breen) is 12-years old and the only white boy on a pre-Civil War plantation. He and the plantation slaves fight to save the plantation from a crooked lawyer after his father's death. Tim wears longs in the stills I have seen.
Basically uninteresting movie. I got interested because at the very beginning there was a brief scene with several British boys in shorts and knee socks. Unfortunately the rest of the movie dealt with the swirl of events at an air base in Britain.
Three Devil's Island escapees unexpectedly help the family clothing business, unfortunately I don't know what the family consists of.
A young man attempts to prove that his father is innocent of murder charges. Competent mystery, but the only bit of special interest is that the man is pictured as a boy at the beginning of the picture. Even though it begins in war time England, the boy wears longs. I thought he was a girl at first. There is one early scene where mum is scrubbing the boy in a tub. All most discrete, but I liked the way she scrubbed away at him and his protests.
Very disappointing film set around a society wedding. A tribe of kids participates, but the boys (all with lovely long hair) are all in tan long pants suits. I think the smallest boy (about 4 or so) is dressed in a white short pants ring bearer suit, but you have to be very quick to see it, at least in the scenes I saw. The kids are depicted either in a flash bursting through various scenes or sitting down at a table. The one nice touch was two big paintings repeatedly seen of boys in sailor suits, one black and one red. They include below the knee pants wore with black stockings.
Charming little British film about a skinny little Scottish boy, who everyone calls Wee Geordie. Geordie is worried about the prospect of being thin and having no strength because of his lack of muscles. He is pictured as a boy 10-years of age and of course wears nice shorts, cords I think. He is picked on by the other boys at school who chase him and tease him. His only friend appears to be a little girl. Geordie has a lovely Scottish accent. The sequences with him as a boy only take up a part at the beginning of the film, but there is a substantial sequence. He sees an advert in a newspaper and sends off for a mail-order body building course. He grows up to be a huge strapping lad that shakes the house when he stomps about and towers over his parents. Everyone still, however, continues to call him Wee Geordie. At 21 he is picked to become a member of the British team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games in the hammer-throwing event. He insists upon wearing his kilt at the games. The young Geordie was played by Paul Young, while Ben Travers played his adult counterpart.
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This is a 1950s film with the same premise as the 1970s "Brady Bunch"--but without the polyester. A widow and widower with several children meet a a result of sending the kids to summer camp. They fall in love, but encounter problems combining their families. They plan a weekend to meet each other's kids. They decide to adopt the other's children. not anticipating that the kids would not dislike the idea of marriage, but each other as well. As a result, they plot to prevent their parents' romance. The relationship is complicated by another man and woman--whom the children prefer. The adult leads are Van Heflin and Patricia Neal. Tommy Rettig is one of the kids and he appears with Gigi Perreau, Janine Perreau, and Jimmy Hunt. Gigi Perreau plays the major kid role in the film. She was best known for playing Kathy (Princess) in the classic 1950s TV series "Father Knows Best". She eventually changes her mind when she sees how much they care for rach other, she convinces the other children to get them back together. The girls wear dresses, some with the back bows typical of the 1950s. The boys often wore plaid shirts and blue jeans. The costuming seems very realistic. The film was based on a story by George F. Slavin. The costume designs were by Bill Thomas. The director Douglas Sirk worked on a similar film, "All that Heaven Allows".
When local high school nerds program gorgeous centerfolds into their home computer, what comes out is the answer to their dreams, curvaceous and sexy. Sam Waterston and Anthony Michael Hall.
After a homosexual affair, a teenage is confused about his sexual identity.
Western Survivors rebuild their burned-out town only to have the man responsible return. A nice blond boy whose father is killed has a major part. Henry Fonda calls him a mama's boy, but he doesn't wear any interesting outfits.
Mob violence flares when a child disappears, but the community bands together when she is found trapped in a well.
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An Austrian reader has mentioned a favorite film of his, "Wenn die Glocken hell erklingen" (When the Bells Sound Clearly) (1959). We know very little about the film except that is about the Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben). Hopefully our German and Austrian readers will be able to tell us more about the film.
‘Went the Day Well’ is the name of an English film about World War II. It was made by a British Ealing Films studio. The script was by John Dighton and Graham Greene. The film was directed by Alberto Cavalcanti.The film is about what would happen if the Nazis invaded Britain. The title is a line from a poem about England. The film is about an English village in a rural county. I think it is Dorset in the South of England. It is the start of summer in the early years of the war, perhaps 1941. The village of Brambly End is preparing to celebrate the Whitsuntide Bank Holiday. The film deals with a German invasion.
Early John Wayne western. The movie begins with two boys (about 8 and 12) briefly playing Wayne and his brother as children. Uninteresting costumes, but typical of the way children were used in 1930s movies. This is the only Wayne film I know of where he is depicted as a child.
TV movie where a blind couple make a life together and bring up their four children, including three boys, on a remote ranch.
Not very appealing, but psychologically chilling film, notable for the performances together of Jane Crawford and Bette Davis. The only thing of real interest was the beginning of the film, set I think in 1917. There are several boys in the audience, several of them nicely dressed. But you have to be quick to spot them. One boy in the front row is in shorts with over the knee stockings. One very nice boy comes on stage, but he is dressed as it was 1970, not even wearing knickers. The best little chap appears as they crowd exits the theater. He is not a little boy, I'd say 11 or 12 and wearing a very smart white sailor suit. You can't tell if he is wearing shorts, but his middy blouse is very nice indeed. You can easily miss him, however, and he is virtually lost in a sea of girls.
A disturbed 12-year old boy plots the destruction of his father's second marriage. Mark Lester
Jackie Cooper and Dickie Moore
Mostly about a sweet little girl and her attachment to a mentally affected war veteran. Her brother and some of her little boy friends are nice. They mostly wear knickers, but ones wears shorts. The movie is set in 1937. Some of the children are bullied by an older boy.
Story of a family's struggle when the head of the family is sent to labor camps for an indiscrete remark.
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A HBC reader has mentioned a Soviet cartoon movie "When Fir Tress Light". The advertisement was drawn by Viktor Suteev. I do not have much information about the film. The charactrs appear to be children and are costumed in contempraryy Soviet children's clothes. The boys wear both short and long pants. The boys in shorts wear long stovkings. Some of the children wear school uniforms. The girls in school uniforms wear pinafores. The school children wear Young Pioneer red neckerchiefs. All the children seem to be 10 years old or younger.
A mischievous youngster is not understood by his parents until his grandfather helps straighten him out. Bobby Driscoll
An orphaned Indian boy encounters adventures in the Old West.
A businessman ignores his troubled wife's abuse of their young daughter.
See "Wenn die Glocken hell erklingen" above.
A 14-year old boy institutionalized with terminal muscular dystrophy tries to improve conditions for the disabled. He faces up to uncaring care givers. Nicely played by Fred Savage.
A film presentation of the E.M. Forester film. It is a nice costume film with children in Edwardian clothes.
Trouble abounds when four nuns take a bus load of students cross country.
After serving time for a petty charge, a mother returns from jail to find her children have been adopted.
A happily married couple is suddenly plunged into a nightmare when the two children are kidnapped.
Ahmad has mistakenly has a school chum's notebook. His friend is in trouble at school and needs the notebook to do his homework. Ahmad searches for his friend, but unable to find him he takes the notebook home and does the assignment for his friend.
Faced with the prospect of selling his late grandfather's house, a man recalls their special relationship. He appears as a boy extensively. In the scenes I saw though, he was wearing overalls. Quite a sensitive, well acted film.
A Norwegian woman travels to Yugoslavia to retrieve her half Serbian son and finds him torn between national and ethnic identities.
Four young orphans fight to stay together in their mountain home. Unfortunately only one is a boy.
A depression era youngster develops a fondness for a pair of hunting dogs. Nice boys involved, but in the parts I saw the boys wore overalls. Stewart Peterson
Beautiful film. A boy (Alessandro Rabelo) is rumored to be the offspring of a priest and a mysterious native woman up river. River dolphins protect the boy. His mother is killed by prospectors and he is taken to an orphanage where a priest tries to civilize him. He escapes and tries to kill the murder. The boy returns to the river and lives with the dolphins. Beautiful underwater swimming scenes. Filmed very discreetly, the boy always wears a loin cloth to cover himself.
Set in the north county of England, two sisters and their brother discover a stranger in Lancashire barn of the farm where they live, One of the
children (Haley Mills) mistakes him to be Jesus, but he is an escaped murderer on the run from the police. Soon word gets out among the
children that Jesus is hiding in the barn and very shortly it becomes packed with those children who have come to see what they believe to
be the saviour of the world. Haley Mills’ on screen brother and sister are Alan Barns and Diane Holegate. Alan wears a schoolboy cap,
navy gabardine raincoat, short trousers and wellington boots.
An American girl marries an English lord. He dies in 1918, but the film follows her life. I haven't seen the movie, but Roddy McDowall, presumably her son, plays Peter Lawford as a boy..
Ben Alexander.
The movie "A White Sail Gleams" is a movie based on the novel by Soviet writer Valentin Kataev (1897-1986). He was a notable Soviet-era Russian novelist and playwright. Somehow managed to craft insightful works describing Soviet social conditions without violating the standards of Soviet censors. Very few notable authors were able to accomplish this. One of his most beloved books is Beleyet parus odinoky/A White Sail Gleams (1936). Russian readers will immediately recognize both the book and the date, Kataev published it in the midst of the Great Terror. It was a popular success in Russia and immediately turned iinto a movie (1937). Here is a screenshot from the film. The story is set in Tsarist times. It is about the revolutional events of 1905 from the point of view of two small boys - one Petya, from the family of a school teacher, and second Gavrik, son of a poor fisherman.
Poetic story of a proud white stallion and his friendship with a young boy. The horse eludes the attempts of ranchers to capture him, but is tamed by the boy's love. Short feature.
A spoiled city kid is sent to a grueling wilderness camp. Teenagers are involved including two younger boys who wear short pants. The protagonist also wears glasses. It is a well done movie about a spoiled kid who has to face the challenge of the wilderness and the other boys. Sean Astin who is about 14 years old plays the spoiled kid. Unfortunately about half way through the film he takes off his glasses and puts on longs, I assume to emphasize his growing maturity. Kevin Bacon is the other princpal actor. Sean wears olive green camp shorts in most of the film looking rather like Boy Scout shorts. They have a lot of pockets, but no zipper closers on the pockets. Another boy in the film also wears shorts but its hard to tell what type because his shirt is hanging over the top of them.
Clay O'Brian
A 13-year old inventor uses his ease dropping invention to trap a city official and his crooked cronies. Eric O'Shea and Clay O'Brien.
Thriller about a juvenile delinquent played by a young Sal Mineo seen in tight white pants. Just as boys in the 1990s and 2000s like baggy pants and wouldn't be cauhjt dead in tight pants, many teenagers in the 1950s and 60s liked very tight pants and would have hooted at a boy wearing baggy pants.
Mark Lester in a film about children terrorized by an elderly lady. He wears a suit with very long, baggy shorts. Unfortunately he is a poor orphan and it is not a very fancy outfit. I can't say I particularly liked the movie. I remember one reviewer commenting that Mark was too old to wear short pants, but that they wanted him to look boyish for the part. British reviewers probably would not made such a comment. Obviously an American reviewer who like many of us did not wear shorts as a boy. It is obviously not very professional to project ones experiences on other historical eras. Starring Shelly Winters (Auntie Roo), Mark Lester (Christopher Coombs), Ralph Richardson (Mr. Benton), and Lionel Jeffries (Inspector Willoughby). Filmed at Shepperton Studios in England. Set sometime in the Inter-war period, "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" is a classic tale of obsession and murder, brought to you by B-movie producer Samuel Z. Arkoff ("Abominable Dr. Phibes", "I Was A Teenage Werewolf", etc), with an excellent look at period orphanage children's clothing.
Based on the true story of a terminally ill Iowa woman who takes it upon herself to find new and loving families for each of her 10 children.
A childless couple is pressured into taking on the responsibility of two young children deserted by their parents.
"Why Wouild I Lie" is a film about Cletus, a compulsive liar. Cletus doesn't look on it as lieing, he calls it 'fabrication'. Cletus takes up social work. One of his cases is Jorge (George in in Spanish). Jorge has been taken away from his mother. Cletus wants to reunite the two. This requites Cletus to make sure Jorge is not adopted. Cletus searches forf Jorge's mother and in the process falls in love with an advice councillor. Jorge is played by Gabriel Swan.
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